EDITOR 'S PREFACE. 



daring explorers is among the things unknown. Besides, millions in 

 money have been expended. 



Many people will question the practical discovery of the North 

 Pole now that it is made. Many are already claiming that the discovery 

 is of sentimental satisfaction only. Let us not be too hasty in drawing 

 such a conclusion. 



A third of a century ago, we had many theorists who felt certain that 

 the vast central western country between the Missouri River and the 

 Rocky Mountains was the ^ ' Great American Desert ' ' and entirely 

 worthless. 



Stanford, Huntington and Crocker, who conceived and made possible 

 the construction of the first transcontinental railway to the Pacific Coast 

 were ridiculed and denounced as being dreamers. Likewise, when the 

 United States jDurchased Alaska the criticisms were intense. Those who 

 favored making Alaska a part of this country by purchase from Russia 

 were denounced as delusionists. 



Many who, in a half-hearted manner, favored the purchase did so to 

 *' get Russia out of America," and saw only a sentimental reason for 

 '' throwing away " $7,200,000, by giving it to Russia for a region of 

 '' no i^ractical use in the world." - 



Who knows but that, as time goes on, it will be demonstrated that 

 the discovery of the extreme Arctic Regions may jDrove to be of more 

 than sentimental and geographical value to all the world and par- 

 ticularly to the United States, in that it will belong to the United States 

 by right of discovery. 



But, let us consider the fact of the discovery a little further. Imagine 

 the discoverer of the North Pole standing with one foot on the extreme 

 end of the 180th meridian and the other on the meridian of zero, or 

 Greenwich. The other end of each of these two imaginary lines comes 

 together after entirely encircling the globe nearly 13,000 miles in either 

 direction, at the South Pole. Here is the spot where no human foot has 

 ever trod, but the thought of the scientific world has centered here for 

 centuries. Is it possible to imagine the thrilling emotions that filled the 

 loreast of the daring explorer who at last stood at this spot? It is as 

 impossible to appreciate such feelings as it is to realize the extreme 

 sufferings and privations endured to reach the coveted spot. Then, the 



